1866 (Re-Shadows 1)
by Particular Pen
Summary: First in my very own Dark Shadows sequel, which I'm calling 'Re-Shadows'. This first installment begins immediately after the 1840 plot of the show. The things that Barnabas and Julia did there rewrote history, and directly effected 1897. These changes begin to manifest in 1971- in the form of a new haunting. No further details for now. Rated T for dark supernatural themes, etc.
1. Chapter 1

**1866**

 _Familiar Music at Collinwood_

Barnabas is still working on several projects with his ever faithful sidekick Julia.

He, Julia, and Professor Stokes had returned from 1841 only a few weeks ago.

Getting used to the present again was always an interesting experience.

How many times had Barnabas lept through time now?

Well there was the time he traveled to 1796 to save Vicki, who it turns out- still died a year later.

Then there was the 1897 fiasco.

Quentin had been a ghost before the past changed. He'd brought David to the point of death- while holding the boy under his power.

1897's twists and turns had truly been an experience! Laura the Phoenix, Quentin's curse, the gypsies, and Petofi...

Barnabas wouldn't have thought that anything could possibly eclipse the insanity and madness he'd lived through then.

He had been wrong...

Next came the one that possibly topped them all! He'd taken a very strange journey into 1970 Parallel Time.

There he'd been forced to contend with a ressurected Angelique. In that time she hadn't been a centuries old witch, but an undead fiend that fed on the warmth of the living.

Then had come his most recent experience. It had been quite enough to rival 1897, and thensome.

His adventures in 1840...

1840 had been a very dark time for the Collins family. None of the present family except himself knew the real truth about that time.

The family had courted in dark force that nearly destroyed the Collins legacy for good.

Barnabas thought he understood something better now. About what had brought Gerard's ghost back in the first place...

It had been Hallie Stokes, the professor's niece.

This was a theory he was almost certain of- since he now believed that Hallie was the reincarnation of Carrie Stokes in 1840.

Gerard's spirit, while confined within the playroom, must have sensed Hallie. What else really made sense?

None of that mattered, since history had been changed. Yet, Barnabas couldn't stop himself from thinking about it.

It would be a long time before he forgot that Collinwood of 1995, or got the image of Gerard's meancing ghost out of his mind.

Something else worried Barnabas too.

He wondered what rewriting the past in 1840 might have changed about everything.

Thus far, nothing seemed to have changed very much.

Quentin Collins was still the same. His memories were more or less the same.

This was odd, since Angelique had seemingly died in 1840- as had Edith Collins...

If these worries about a changed present weren't enough- Barnabas also had his vampirism to contend with.

Angelique's death should have reversed his vampirism completely, but Jeb's curse still seemed to hold effect.

Barnabas wasn't always a vampire now. It was a strange half-appearance of the condition.

He felt and acted like his old self only when experiencing blood lust, but was otherwise human.

Julia kept telling him firmly that he must not act on the desire for blood, unless the curse return in full.

Instead, she gave him injections to curb his appetite when it came.

They had the hope of reversing the remaining symptoms from Jeb's curse, as long as Barnabas didn't taste blood and fully transform.

With Maggie's return in a few days- resisting that desire would become much harder.

It didn't help that Quentin now contended with Barnabas for Maggie's affections.

Jealousy would only serve to intensify the thirst, Julia feared...

That was another thing on their minds besides Barnabas's condition.

Why did Quentin still feel for Maggie with Angelique gone? Could it be that they were wrong about the pitchfork mark on the hand?

What if the mark brought out already existing, but hidden feelings? Even if they were slight?

The possibility made Barnabas feel sick. It would mean that Josette had harbored some slight affection for Jeremiah from the start...

Whatever the case- there was no undoing the feelings that Angelique's mark had brought out.

Quentin professed to still love Maggie. He wrote to her, and said he wanted to marry after she returned.

Barnabas couldn't deny the sick, chest-tightening feeling this gave him.

He had always believed that there could be something for Maggie and himself...

What if this was all wishful thinking? What if Maggie loved Quentin- and Barnabas found himself alone again?

He mustn't let himself think that way!

He must focus on the problem of his vampirism.

That was why he was in Julia's room in Collinwood, helping her pour through journals.

Some of the journals had belonged to the late Doctor Lang.

Julia was leaving no stone unturned...

They were only distracted from this work by Elizabeth passing outside the room in hall.

She was talking to Carolyn.

"Are you sure?" Elizabeth asked. "You heard music?"

"I've heard it before," Carolyn stated factually. "Remember when I believed I was Leticia? I told you already- about the playroom."

Barnabas looked at Julia.

A knowing look was reflected in her own pondering gaze at him.

"The playroom," Julia mused thoughtfully. "Didn't the playroom close after we changed the past?"

Barnabas looked thoughtful and just a little concerned.

"Maybe not," he said. "It wouldn't be the first time our past has come to haunt us..."

Julia folded her hands together dramatically and sighed.

"Barnabas," she said, shaking her head. "We just can't! We can't keep changing the past! We might cause something really dire to happen in this time..."

"I know," Barnabas nodded in agreement. "First, Vicki went to 1795 during the seance and returned. Just her mere presence in that time brought Angelique back here, and with it Nicholas Blair."

"Right," Julia chimed in. "Then you traveled to 1897 and changed things. We traveled to the other 1970, where Collinwood was destroyed- only to find this house in ruins in 1995."

Julia shook her head.

"Barnabas, what if we're causing these things? What if we somehow brought Gerard back?"

"No," Barnabas disagreed with certainty. "I've already accounted for that. It was Hallie. Hallie is the reincarnation of Carrie Stokes. Just like Kitty Soames was Josette's reincarnation..."

Julia paced back and forth across her room, deep in thought.

"Maybe it has nothing to do with the past," she spoke suddenly. "Though it seems too much to hope. Maybe the playroom reappearing has nothing to do with the past. Who knows- maybe Carolyn imagined that music?"

"I hope so," Barnabas said, as though he really doubted it.

Yet, Julia was right...

There was only way to find out about the music. They must sit up here at Collinwood tonight.

(...that evening...)

The house was quiet and still.

Elizabeth and Roger had gone up to bed for the night. David and Carolyn were in their rooms.

Julia and Barnabas sat in the drawing room, talking occasionally, but usually just sitting in silence.

They were waiting on something to happen. Anything really...

"You want some coffee?" Julia offered.

"That would be delightful," Barnabas said agreeably.

Julia rose from the drawing room couch, and stepped past the open double doors, into the foyer.

She was about to go into the side hall that led to the kitchen, when she heard it...

A slow, soft, tingly music rung off the walls.

Barnabas hurried out into the foyer with an alert gleam in his eyes.

"It's the music," he whispered. "Tad and Carrie's music..."

They made their way upstairs to the linen closet.

Usually, a wall at the back of the linen closet blocked the playroom. It had been built there to seal the room.

The room where Gerard's cursed spirit had once resided...

Barnabas wondered if it was possible. _Remotely_ possible- Gerard was still in the house?

Something told him that wasn't the case.

The music got louder as they reached the hall with the linen closet.

Barnabas and Julia knew what they would see when they opened the closet door.

Then the music suddenly stopped. At the very moment Barnabas's hand touched the doorknob...

Barnabas gave Julia an uneasy look and turned the doorknob slowly. The wood of the door seemed to creak ominously.

Sure enough! It was the playroom. Not the linen closet...

The carousel was slowly turning, as though it had just stopped with the music.

The room still had the uneasy feeling of a recent presence.

"Who is here?" Barnabas called out.

Then something appeared in the corner. It was a phantom...

It wasn't Gerard.

It was a man in his thirties alright. A man that Barnabas thought he recognized...

There was something familiar about the man's eyes, and the way he groomed his hair.

"Tad," Barnabas gasped, as it suddenly hit him. "Tad Collins?"

The playroom lights flickered on and off, and then the phantom was gone.

Julia gasped when the carousel began to spin, and the all too familiar music played.

"Tad Collins," she whispered. "He was a man. Not a boy..."

Barnabas nodded.

They were seeing an adult Tad. Not a child, like when Gerard was here.

They'd changed the past, but similarly to Vicki- it appeared Tad had still died.

He had died considerably young...


	2. Chapter 2

**1866**

 _Decisions and dreams_

Julia paced with the playroom as though she were absolutely on pins and needles. Such pacing often indicated her indecision or frustration.

Finally she stopped and Barnabas looked up to meet her gaze. He was wearing a thoughtful scowl.

Tad didn't manifest again.

"We mustn't involve ourselves this time," Julia said insistently. "We're changing things too much..."

"Well unless a need to involve ourselves is presented," Barnabas suggested. "Otherwise, what's one more Collins family ghost?"

Julia said nothing, but privately agreed with Barnabas.

If anything happened to a present day family member, she of course would agree that they must act.

Unfortunately, these apparitions from the past did seem to have a way of influencing the present at Collinwood...

A frightened boy's scream suddenly pierced the night's silence inside the mansion.

Julia and Barnabas went running. It was David's scream!

Elizabeth was already at the boy's side trying to comfort him when they arrived.

David's wide, frightened eyes shifted to Barnabas.

"It was Tad!" he spoke frantically. "Only...older."

Julia approached and massaged David's shoulder in an attempt to calm him.

"It'll be alright David," Julia said kindly. "You know you can always talk to us about anything."

David hesitated before continuing.

"Tad was older, I thought. Except I couldn't see him too well. He was being held somewhere. There was something being done to him. He couldn't escape..."

David cut off and looked extremely troubled.

"He couldn't escape!" David sobbed, beginning to choke up.

Julia embraced David gingerly.

"It'll be okay David," she soothed, looking at Barnabas and Elizabeth. "Please...let us be alone?"

Elizabeth and Barnabas agreed and stood outside the room.

About ten minutes later Julia came out.

"I gave him a little something for sleep."

Elizabeth looked worried.

"Maybe he'll be better in the morning," she said, not sounding too sure.

"We can only hope for the best," Barnabas observed. "I think I'll be heading back to the Old House. Do let me know if you need anything of me."

"Good night Barnabas," Elizabeth said pleasantly.

...and they all hoped David would be fine in the morning...


	3. Chapter 3

**1866**

 _Vanished_

Morning at Collinwood- and David Collins was not fine...

Elizabeth couldn't conceal a worried expression as Julia checked the sleeping boy's vitals.

"I'm sorry," Julia said eventually. "I have no explanation for why he isn't waking. There's nothing physically wrong with him..."

Elizabeth insisted she sit by David's side while Julia said she would go research.

Julia only wished she could tell Barnabas about the latest development, but that must wait until night...

Left to act alone during the day- Julia decided to consult the next best advisor at Collinwood.

"Quentin," she called.

She knocked on Quentin's bedroom door. No response...

"Quentin," she repeated.

"You won't find him..."

Carolyn had suddenly turned up.

"Carolyn," Julia said somewhat sharply, disliking being snuck up on.

Carolyn scowled slightly.

"That isn't my name. I keep telling you all that I'm Leticia..."

Julia sighed, but knew arguing would be useless.

Carolyn still believed she was Leticia Faye. Maybe she was doomed now to always believe that...

"Leticia," Julia spoke carefully. "What did you mean I won't find Quentin?"

Carolyn giggled and managed her most mysterious knowing look.

"He is fading in and out now," she said cryptically. "Whatever changed in the past threatens his existence."

Julia was horrified and hoped Leticia wasn't saying what she thought.

"You mean something that happened in 1840?"

"Bingo," Carolyn confirmed. "Something has changed the flow of time from what it had been. Quentin came into existence from that flow..."

Julia's eyes widened with realization.

She thought that maybe she suddenly understood.

One of the major changes in 1840 was the seeming death of Edith Collins.

Edith had been the 1897 Quentin's grandmother...

"Oh don't worry," Leticia cut into her thoughts. "Quentin hasn't faded from this world altogether. He is sort of in a limbo. The past may yet right itself."

Julia suddenly realized with near unspeakable horror what the full implications of Quentin never existing were likely to be.

It may mean Edward Collins never existed. That would mean no Jameson- so no modern family...

Julia now understood the enormity of what she and Barnabas must likely face.

Quentin's sudden vanishing added to this whole mystery.

Why had Tad's ghost manifested? Why had David not woken?

Julia now knew she must bring in the reliable family friend, Professor Stokes.

If anyone besides Barnabas or Quentin would be able to put these latest happenings into some kind of context- the professor could!


	4. Chapter 4

**1866**

 _Sleeping sickness_

Professor Stokes shook David by the shoulder, but ultimately did no better in rousing the boy.

The professor gave Julia a questioning glance.

"You are certain that nothing is medically wrong?"

"Nothing appears to be," she said.

Professor Stokes looked around at everyone gathered there. The group now included a rather glum Roger Collins.

"I once read about something very like this," the professor began. "Mind you the details are nearly legendary. The English call it 'sleeping sickness' and attribute it to the mystical."

He paused for emphasis and continued.

"All theology aside- sleeping sickness is attributed to higher forces. We have all encountered such forces in this house."

Julia and Elizabeth exchanged worried glances. Neither one of them said 'seance', but it wasn't necessary.

Carolyn/Leticia came bounding into the room at that very moment.

"We have got to hold a seance," she announced in her most mysterious of tones. "The spirit we must contact? Tad Collins..."

"Ta..." David spoke suddenly, though he didn't wake. "T-Tad Collins..."

The professor exchanged a worried glance with Julia.

"Tad!" David blurted dumbly. "T-Tad trapped..."

"Trapped how?" Stokes pressed.

David's lips moved in his sleep. They moved as though he were struggling to talk.

"Trapped like me," the boy said heavily. "Asleep. Trapped..."

An errie sound like a nail scrapping a chalkboard was heard.

"Look!" Julia said shakily, pointing.

Much to their horror- they all saw words being written in one of David's notebooks.

A pen was being moved by an invisible hand.

They could see two words written out. Then the pen fell uselessly to the floor.

Elizabeth cautiously approached David's desk and gasped in surprise.

'Caleb Collins' was written on the paper.

"Caleb Collins?" Elizabeth asked with confusion.

Her brother Roger looked equally confused.

"David," Julia said gently, shaking his shoulder.

The boy was once more unresponsive.

Professor Stokes had already gotten to his feet and left the room at the mention of 'Caleb Collins'. Now he returned holding the infamous Collins family history.

"Caleb Collins," he read, stopping at a certain page. "He was a son of Edith and Gabriel Collins. Not much is recorded here about him. It says he was an eccentric loner. He preferred to live at Seaview. The book says he died there..."

"Why would Caleb be trying to reach us?" Julia wondered.

Carolyn's eyes became wide as she touched her hand to her head.

"He died with a great family secret," she said. "Caleb Collins took something to his grave. I cannot see what..."

"Family secret," Stokes muttered, clearly trying to piece something together. "Did the secret relate to Tad in some way?"

None of them had an answer to that.

Julia knew that as soon as Barnabas arose from slumber- a seance would have to be held...


End file.
